Originally posted by Pokey: I have the best sword and shield available. I did try hiring a mercenary, but he lasted less than 10 minutes. I'll get a longer lived one next. They don't seem to do much damage.

I am in the Flayer Jungle now. Hope I can stay alive till I find the waypoint.

When you look at the character sheet, what are your resistances like? It's getting important to ensure that your resistances to fire/cold/lightning are at least 20% or more by now.

Did you equip your mercenary? You can give them better helmet, armor and weapons.

And it's not just sword and shield either. You should double check your helmet, armor, boots, gloves, rings and amulet. I keep hoping to find some more stuff that's both useful for my character and has sockets (I have a lot of runes/jewels/gems now) but magic items or ones with sockets are all good.

Originally posted by Pokey: I didn't think to equip my mercenary. Will try that. I have the best equipment I can get. I am doing everything to get my resistance up. Gems are really in short supply.

...I don't know how to tell what equipment he has or how to change it.

Right-click the picture of your hireling. That will bring up their character sheet and inventory window. Hirelings in Act III can specialize in fire or cold. I'd take cold, that can slow monsters quite nicely.

Nope, right clicking the picture doesn't work. I have just Diablo 2. I just lost my best hireling. He did 4-10 damage fire. Will take the one for cold now. I found the blade I'm looking for but left it alone till I find the waystation.

Yes, the cold is working really well. Finally found the waypoint at the very end of the jungle. Now to go back and get the blade. Don't want to shutdown and have all those things come back again.

...I just checked and it looks like I have to come back to the same area to get the brain, which means do it tonight or leave the game running all night. There are so many things about this game that I don't like.

Could be worse. Sacred regenerates monsters while you are still there, in 10 minutes realtime, they are back up to full numbers. Then again, Sacred does remember your location properly so you don't have to run back to a cave from a village when starting the game for the day. That is annoying.

I just cleared out Lower Kurash. Hmm, the monsters weren't too bad and there was some nice stuff. You have to enter every building in the ruin to get it all, but that was worth a lot of gold. I was teleporting every few minutes, but my stash is bulging now!

VHLMagic,the hireling from Act 1 can only use bows. The hirelings from act 2 use spears and javelins. The hirelings from act 3 also have specific weapons.

And yeah, it will take a very long time to complete 4 games vs players who only do one at a time.

I'll be heading to Kurast today. Nice to hear it has some good stuff. I haven't picked up anything in quite a while. I could sure use some gems. Of course your game probably has diffferent stuff. I regretted getting that free hireling. Shouldn't have talked to her. I lost my great cold one and got a poorer one using fire. I finally went back and hired a cold one, but not as great as the first. If I keep hiring, will the list run out--no more available?

Originally posted by Pokey: I'll be heading to Kurash today. Nice to hear it has some good stuff. I haven't picked up anything in quite a while. I could sure use some gems. Of course your game probably has diffferent stuff. I regretted getting that free hireling. Shouldn't have talked to her. I lost my great cold one and got a poorer one using fire. I finally went back and hired a cold one, but not as great as the first. If I keep hiring, will the list run out--no more available?

Can't help with the hirelings, in the expansion you can give them healing potions and you can pay to resurrect them. So I have the same one I started with she's leveled with me through the game.

As for the stuff I picked up in lower Kurash, there were lots of potions (horadic cube recipe; three healing potions - three mana potions = one restore potion), a large charm, chipped skull, lots of fairly valuble weapons and armor. Maps are random, but I'll bet you'll get plenty to sell and stuff your stash with cash.